Common Tactics
__TOC__ Bracket Surfing * Because your attack bracket (AB) is determined by power +/- 50% and your attack power +/- 20%, players can change their AB by artificially changing these two numbers to match targets. This is usually achieved in one of a few ways: ** Receiving vassals from an ally to increase base power. ** Consigning lower power vassals to their attackers to increase attack power. ** Consigning lower power vassals to lower their base power ** Using an ally's trapper to shed vassals. A player may shed low vassals to drop base power or shed top vassals to drop in attack power. They may also choose to shed both. ** It is most common for players to surf down, but this tactic can also be used to surf up. Team Attacks or Gang Attacks * Players who attack the same target at the same time as allies to quickly wear down a target. Power Rescue (PR) * When a player takes on much larger vassals into their attack team to aid in a rescue. This is accomplished in several ways: ** Receiving a fealty (once every two hours) ** Conquering an ally (no fealty timer) ** Receiving a gift from one's liege (no fealty timer) ** Important: this is a dangerous maneuver to undertake, as it will greatly inflate your attack power, perhaps beyond what your defenses can handle, putting all of your other vassals at risk. *** Usually this risk is mitigated by the use of the companion bond. Either the player will uncompanion a large vassal, rescue, and then release, or they will take on a large vassal, rescue, and propose companion bond. Walling * To defend against the PR, players may choose to take on extra power in a similar fashion to the PR itself, but place these large vassals in the defense that protects the prisoner. * This incurs a comparable level of risk as PRing for the player. ** The risk can be mitigated by dropping defenses to a single line defense, typically blue defense because it contains the tower for gold protection. Dropping a defensive line (aka Going 1 Line, or Going 2 Lines) * Some players will choose to ignore one or two of their defenses completely. This is risky because it opens the dropped line to a free attack, making all unprotected gold available to raid. Also, any vassal that does not fit into the protected defensive line is vulnerable to seizure. Rescue breaking * The trapper is often used as a deterrent, to discourage others from continuing an attack. However, if used improperly, it can also make a player vulnerable. ** Experienced players will frequently attack with a "Trapper Safe" configuration, which places an expendable squire/maid ("squirrel", colloquially) at the end of the attacking army. When this low value vassal is trapped, it is available for rescue. ** Rescues are free attacks that do not engage the trapper. That means a player can rescue at full power, which wears down defenses, eventually enabling rescue and leaving the defense open for attack. ** The attacking player will repeat this process until the defense is open enough for raiding and eventual seize. Double Zeal * In order to seize, the defense must be burned. So for a sure thing, players can double zeal. ** Attacking player has twice as many vassals as their attacking army that are fully zealed (prayed for utilizing the church). ** The first set of zeal is used to burn the defense in one hit. ** The second set of zeal is used to seize the vassal. ** Usually, this tactic is used in conjunction with a scout report, so that the attacker knows exactly where the vassal is located and does not waste their zeal. Force Promote *Taking advantage of a player leaving a trapper set to force a player to the next title by dropping power into the trapper. This is done for a variety of reasons: **To promote a player out of their liege and make the player vulnerable to conquer **To promote a player out of their liege to thwart the liege's rescue **To remove the player from the attack bracket. **To make the player more vulnerable to attacks in the new attack bracket due to new attack criteria.